It started many years ago. I secretly coveted some paper collections. This was in my early days of scrapbooking. I was a fresh college grad and most of my supplies came from WalMart. I couldn't dream on spending so much money on simply paper. But still, I loved Basic Grey. I didn't buy any, but just drooled over it online. As time went by, I expanded my horizons to a newly opened scrapbook store in my town and moved up to drooling in person. I bought a sheet here and there but couldn't bring myself to spend almost $20 at once on something that was simply fancy paper.
As happens with so many hobbies, life interferes and you drift away. My sister moved in with my husband and I temporarily, and I found out a few months later I was pregnant. My daughter is born (who is two now) and my sis moves out. We sell our house and move to an apartment waiting for our new house to be built. Time moves on.
Then, about a month before my daughter's first birthday, I start peeking at scrapbook.com and twopeasinabucket.com. There's nothing like thousands (I wish I was exaggerating) of baby photos to make a girl want to scrapbook again! And so, I began drooling over Basic Grey once again. This time though, I didn't see the $20 as a terribly huge sacrifice and I bought my first complete collection - Lemonade. I have to say, that is still one of my favorite collections. I adore it. Many of Elizabeth's first layouts were done with that collection.
After many discussions with my husband, we decided to do something that I've always wanted - give me a scrapbook room! The corner in his office was overflowing and I needed more space. As I moved into the spare bedroom, I went through many of the supplies I had kept from years ago, including scraps of paper. And one of them that I picked up made me smile. It was covered with elephants. My mom loves elephants and I bought that paper to scrapbook some photos I took of her opening an elephant gift I had purchased for her while on vacation at the beach. I looked at the bottom cutaway strip and smiled. It was from Basic Grey!
I went searching for more Basic Grey after that. I started buying some of the new lines that came out that I fell in love with. I also noticed a For Sale or Trade board on Two Peas. It was then that I crossed the line from merely drooling over paper to being in a full blown love affair. There were ladies there selling their old Basic Grey lines that they didn't want anymore. And they were selling them for half the price! I snatched up two, three, sometimes six different lines at once from sellers.
I began to realize how much I liked that company. Their style matched my own in many ways. I will admit, I'm not a fan of the recent stuff that has come out. Wander and Jovial just don't speak to me the way Lemonade and Oh! Baby Girl (the first line I ever drooled over and now own three sets of) do. So, I told myself that I don't have to buy everything. Far from it. However, as I buy the old lines, I stare at my growing collection excited to be creating again. I can't wait to take more photos of my daughter and put them on that luscious Basic Grey paper. In fact, I think she's waking up from her nap. Time to go to the pumpkin patch and get some of those photos.
Happy scrapping!
